A jubilant State College crowd estimated at several thousand people flooded East Beaver Avenue for more than two hours late Sunday and early Monday, spontaneously celebrating the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
‘It’s bringing closure — it’s bringing a lot of closure — to something that happened 10 years ago,’ Penn State sophomore John Zang said, referring to al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Zang called bin Laden’s death ‘justice for what happened.’
The East Beaver Avenue celebration was centered heavily in the 300 block, the core of the student-apartment area known unofficially as ‘Beaver Canyon.’ Aerial images of the scene showed the downtown thoroughfare packed with revelers, wedged cheek by jowl between Locust Lane and Hiester Street.
They began to gather in the Canyon minutes after 11 p.m., as national news outlets started to preview President Barack Obama’s announcement of bin Laden’s death.
By 11:30 p.m. — about the time Obama announced U.S. forces had killed bin Laden — borough police blocked off East Beaver Avenue from Pugh Street east to Garner Street. Penn State, Ferguson Township and Patton Township police assisted them at the scene, along with the Alpha Fire Company and Centre LifeLink.
Borough police Chief Tom King very roughly projected that the crowd may have been about 5,000 to 6,000 people strong at its height. He affirmed that the group’s mood was celebratory, and said that police may issue only a couple citations related to the gathering.
Those potential citations, King said, would stem from some people’s tossing items from apartment balconies. He said that police did not determine who started a small, paper-fueled fire during the celebration, but that an officer was able to extinguish it quickly.
No injuries were reported during the celebration, which largely dissipated by 1:30 a.m. It was entirely over by 1:50 a.m., though police kept East Beaver Avenue between Locust Lane and Hiester Street closed for clean-up until about 4 a.m.
‘Intoxication levels are not high,’ King said shortly before midnight. ‘People are walking with cups of coffee and not bottles of beer.’
He said police decided to let the celebration takes its natural course — as long as no one was being hurt and no property was damaged. Officers kept an eye on the scene partly through a public surveillance camera, which helped them to keep students from climbing trees and street-light poles, King said. (Damage appeared mostly limited to a parked car that had been dented in the revelry, and to a street light rocked loose from its power supply.)
On Twitter and elsewhere, many observers called the gathering a riot. Seen in person, however, it seemed more a high-octane block party or rally.
Students were clad in patriotic clothes. Some wore American flags as capes. Others donned costumes; many crowd-surfed; and one dressed up as Captain America. U.S.-themed songs — from the national anthem to ‘Proud to Be an American,’ ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ — echoed up and down the avenue, supported by student vocals.
The cowbell also made a proud appearance; toilet paper was draped in the trees; and American flags were everywhere.
Round after round of fireworks echoed through and around Beaver Canyon, too. Makeshift confetti — often ripped-up paperwork — and colored balloons fell from apartment balconies. Crowd chants included ‘U-S-A,’ profanity about bin Laden, football-season favorites, and ‘F-T-K’ — a reference to the Penn State dance marathon and its ‘For the kids’ slogan.
In fact, so popular was the gathering, it effectively cut short the annual Mifflin Streak, held earlier in the evening. The streak, an unsanctioned chance for Penn State students to strip naked and run down Mifflin Road before final exams, broke up as students poured toward Beaver Canyon instead.
King said the Canyon has emerged as a de facto gathering place over the past 10 to 15 years. The last time the Canyon saw such a large, impromptu event seems to have been the Ohio State riot in 2008.
Penn State senior Adam Stoltzfus had hoped to drive his Harley-Davidson motorcycle — with an American flag duct-taped to the back — through Beaver Canyon late Sunday. Finding the avenue closed, he instead parked on Hiester Street and talked with passers-by.
He called bin Laden’s killing a milestone in American history that caps ’10 years of agony.’
Like many other Penn State students, Stoltzfus was in eighth grade when terrorists struck the U.S. in 2001. He said the attacks inspired in him a greater sense of overall awareness and a stronger extroverted, outgoing streak.
The enthusiasm of Penn Staters wasn’t lost on the national news media, which took notice of the Beaver Avenue crowd as they covered similar gatherings in Washington, D.C., and New York. On MSNBC, reporter Luke Russert observed early Monday:
‘If you look at those Penn State videos, those Penn State pictures, those kids are having a great time for a great cause.’
Video coverage from OnwardState.com contributor John Tecce is embedded below. To see live tweets posted by StateCollege.com late Sunday and early Monday, go to the @SCNewsDesk Twitter page.
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Related coverage from OnwardState.com
